PapaJohns.com Bowl, Birmingham, AL: Cincinnati Bearcats vs Southern Miss Golden Eagles

Cincinnati -11
As I spoke about on The Dean Browski Show, coaching vacancies are a hot button item to look for this Bowl Season. Southern Miss fired Jeff Bower after pretty successful years at the helm. I am not alone in being surprised by Coach Bower’s firing, so don’t be surprised if there is unrest among the team. It can be difficult to adapt to new methods of the interim coach and to do it against a good Cincinnati team makes it that much more difficult. But more than the coaching change at So Miss, the Bearcats are deserving of accolades and 3-stars. Their own coach may not be around much longer, but it would be to go to a more high-profile program. Cincinnati has some impressive wins this year and is 8-2-1 ATS, with their 2 non-covers coming in back-to-back losses to Pitt and Louisville in October. In addition to those two losses, they lost (but covered) against West Virginia.

New Mexico Bowl, Albuquerque, NM: New Mexico Lobos vs Nevada Wolfpack

Nevada +2.5
I don’t know much about these teams, hence the low stars. What I do know is that New Mexico is without their leading rusher due to academic issues, and I know that Nevada has the #7 ranked offense. One might think the home-field advantage would be in New Mexico’s favor, but Vegas doesn’t think so as the line is only 2.5. That is surprising given that New Mexico is 8-4 while Nevada is 6-6. Nevada lost to Boise St. and Hawaii by a total of 4 points; New Mexico has a win over Arizona.

Las Vegas Bowl, Las Vegas, NV: UCLA Bruins vs BYU Cougars

BYU -6.5
I have been salivating over this game since the matchup was announced. UCLA’s coach, Karl Dorrell, as fired at the end of the year which only adds to my love of BYU. UCLA lost to Notre Dame, joining the elite ranks of Duke and Stanford. In addition to that, the Bruins lost to Utah 44-6. UCLA is not worthy of being in a bowl. Here are the highlights of their 6 wins: they beat this BYU team in Week 2. In that game BYU out gained the Bruins and fell behind 20-0, only to fight back to 20-17. Since then UCLA has acquired wins over weaker opponents and if not for Oregon losing Dennis Dixon UCLA would have lost that game and finished 5-7. It is tough to beat someone more than once in the same year, and to know how much has changed, today’s line represents a 14 point swing from their first meeting. BYU is also on a 9 game winning streak. BYU gets 5-stars!